Oct 3 You've got to know when to fold them

It's safe to say that we have never seen a disaster befall a major-party candidate of the likes befalling Donald Trump. As the tweets above show, this is just today. This doesn't take into account the disastrous week he had last week after bombing at the first Presidential debate.

Of course, this begs the question: Why did Trump run in the first place?

It's obvious that he never had any intention of mounting a serious candidacy. Someone who is serious about attaining the White House would have laid down the infrastructure to at least make a go of it. From ground staff to professional campaign advisers, Trump has done none of the basic due diligence of running a modern political campaign. He promised to self-finance, because, of course, he is a "billionaire". Instead, he fleeced his rubes and received billions of dollars of free air time from a feckless media.

Trump's Quixotic campaign was nothing more than one more effort to burnish his brand. He gambled that he'd get some publicity, secure a position as the candidate of white resentment, and then give way to one of the favored GOP primary candidates.

What he didn't count on was that the GOP base thirsted for a man like himself. It was tired of limp-wristed pabulum pukers (h/t Morton Downey, Jr.). It wanted a man who "told it like it was", who didn't couch his words in political niceties, who expressed every resentment they felt. Donny was it for them.

And what was a cynical ploy to get another few seasons of "The Apprentice" out of NBC turned into a real campaign. And Trump, being Trump, loved the adulation. You notice that he never appears anywhere with small groups of voters; the only time you see Trump is in front of adoring crowds, much like every other fascist demagogue. If he had to sit in a living room with a small group of voters listening to their concerns, he wouldn't know what to do.

His gamble that he could get a publicity boost out of running for president without much damage has come up craps. All his skeletons, finally, are coming to light. The most damaging—because it's potentially criminal—is the functioning of his charitable foundation. The New York state attorney general has not only ordered it to cease and desist all activities, but also demanded a detailed filing of records within 15 days. This is not going to end well for Trump.

Like a cokehead on one last bender, Trump has no way out. He's too far down the hole to see light, and just has to keep digging until he hits rock bottom. The tragedy is that as he does so, he'll drag our politics down with him, leaving a sizable following stewing in animus towards the political majority. As always, Trump gambled with other people's money. And it's the rest of us who will pay.